CHAPTER XXVII
THE GIANT AWAKES
Allen Drew had not been a party to the conference between CaptainHamilton and Grimshaw after supper. After the strenuous exertions ofthe day he had felt the need of a bath and a change of linen.
Once more clothed and feeling refreshed, Drew paced the afterdeck withhis cigar, hearing the voices of Captain Hamilton and Tyke in theformer's cabin, but having no desire just then to join them.
Although his body was rejuvenated, his mind was far from peaceful. Hehad not lost hope of their finding what they had come so far to searchfor; he still believed the pirate hoard to be buried on the side of thewhale's hump. "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick;" but hope had notbeen long enough deferred in this case to sicken any of the party oftreasure seekers. Yet there was a great sickness at the heart of AllenDrew.
That particular incident of the afternoon that had brought theremembrance of Parmalee so keenly to his mind, had thrown a pall overhis thoughts not easily lifted.
It had shown, too, that Parmalee's strange and awful death had stronglyaffected Ruth. That mystery was likely to erect a barrier between thegirl and himself. Indeed, it had done so already. Drew felt it--heknew it!
There was in her father's attitude something intangible, yet certainenough, which spelled the captain's doubt of him. As long asParmalee's disappearance remained unexplained, as long as Ditty's storycould not be disproved, Drew felt that Captain Hamilton would nurse inhis mind a doubt of his innocence.
And that doubt, if it remained, whether Drew was ever tried for thecrime of Parmalee's murder or not, just as surely put Ruth out of hisgrasp as though his hands actually dripped of the dead man's blood.
Captain Hamilton would never see his daughter marry a man under such acloud. Drew appreciated the character of the schooner's commander toothoroughly to base any illusions upon the fact that Hamilton treatedhim kindly. They were partners in this treasure hunt. The doubloonsonce secured, the _Bertha Hamilton_ once in port, Drew well knew thatRuth's father would do what he felt to be his duty. He would be Drew'saccuser at the bar of public justice. That, undoubtedly, was aforegone conclusion.
Plunged in the depth of these despairing thoughts, Drew was startled bythe light fall of a soft hand upon his arm, and he descried the slightfigure of Ruth beside him.
"Walking the deck alone, Allen?" she said softly. "I wondered whereyou were."
"Just doing my usual forty laps after supper," he responded, trying tospeak lightly.
"I should think your work to-day in the digging, to say nothing of ourexperience in the cave, would have been as much exercise as you reallyneeded," she said, laughing. "And all for nothing!"
"We could scarcely expect success so soon," he replied.
"No? Perhaps success is not to be our portion, Allen. What then?"
"Well," and he tried to say it cheerfully, "we've had a run for ourmoney."
"A run for the pirate's money, you mean. Let's see," she added slyly,"that confession did not state just how many doubloons were buried, didit?"
"The amount specified I failed to make out," he told her. "Time haderased it."
"Then we are after an unknown amount--an unknown quantity of doubloons.And perhaps we are fated never to know the amount of the pirate'shoard," and she laughed again. Then, suddenly, she clutched his armmore tightly as they paced the deck together, crying under her breath:"Oh! look yonder Allen."
A strangely flickering light dispelled the pall that hung above thehilltop. The cloud of smoke or steam, rising from the crater and whichthey had first seen that afternoon, was now illuminated and shotthrough with rays of light evidently reflected from the bowels of thehill.
"The volcano is surely alive!" cried the young man.
The crew, loafing on the forecastle, saw the phenomenon, and theirchattering voices rose in a chorus of excitement. Tyke came up frombelow and joined Drew and the captain's daughter. The glare of thevolcano illuminated the night, and they could see each other's featuresdistinctly.
"Looks like we'd stirred things up over there," chuckled the old man."There are more'n ghosts of dead and gone pirates guarding thattreasure."
"It--it is rather terrifying, isn't it?" Ruth suggested.
"It is to them ignorant swabs for'ard," growled Tyke. "Good thing,though. They'll be too scared to want to roam over the island. Wewant it to ourselves till we find the loot. Don't we, Allen?"
"That's true. The disturbance over there may not be an unmitigatedevil," was the young man's rejoinder.
Captain Hamilton called Ruth through the open window of his cabin, andshe bade Grimshaw and Allen Drew good night and went below. Tykeremained only long enough to finish his cigar, then he departed.
The light over the volcano faded, the rumblings ceased. Drew, in hisrubber-soled shoes, paced the deck alone; but he could not be seen tenfeet away, for he wore dark clothes.
He knew that Mr. Rogers had long since gone to his room. Most of thecrew had either sought their bunks or were stretched out on theforecastle hatch. Yet he heard a low murmur of voices from amidships.When he paced to that end of his walk, the voices reached him quiteclearly and he recognized that of the one-eyed mate. The other man heknew to be Bingo, the only English sailor aboard--a shrewd andrat-faced little Cockney.
"Blime me, Bug-eye! but wot Hi sye Hi means. The devil 'imself's nearwhere there's so much brimstone. If that hull bloomin' 'ill blows hup,where'll we be, Hi axes ye?"
"Jest here or hereabouts," growled Ditty.
Drew stepped nearer and frankly listened to the conversation.
"Hi'm as 'ungry for blunt as the next bloke, an' ye sye there's plentyhin it----"
"Slathers of it, Bingo," said the mate earnestly. "Why, man! some ofthese islands down here are rotten with buried pirate gold. Millionsand millions was stole and buried by them old boys."
"Yah! Hi've 'eard hall that before, Hi 'ave. Who hain't?" said Bingo,with considerable shrewdness. "Honly hit halways struck me that ifthem old buccaneers, as they calls 'em, was proper sailormen, they'd'ave spent the hull blunt hinstead o' buryin' hof hit."
"Holy heavers, Bingo, they couldn't spend it all!" exclaimed Ditty."There was too much of it. Millions, mind you!"
"Millions! My heye!" croaked the Cockney. "A million of yer Hamericandollars or a million sterling?"
"You can lay to it," said Ditty firmly, "that there's more'n onemillion in English pounds buried in these here islands. And there's abunch of it somewheres on this island."
"Then, Bug-eye, wye don't we git that map hand dig it hup hourselves onthe bloomin' jump? Wye wite? We kin easy 'andle the hafter-guard."
"The boys are balkin', that's why," growled Ditty. "They're likeyou--afraid of that rotten old volcano."
"Blime me! Hand wye wouldn't they be scare't hof hit?" snarled theCockney.
"That bein' the general feelin'," Ditty said calmly, "why we'll stickto my plan. Let the old man dig it up hisself and bring it aboard.
"It'll save us the trouble, won't it? And mebbe we can git rid of someof the swabs, one at a time----"
"Huh!" chuckled Bingo. "One's gone halready. Hi see yer bloomin'scheme, Bug-eye."
"Well, then," said the mate, rising from his seat, "keep it to yourselfand take your orders from me, like the rest does."
"Hall right, matey, hall right," said Bingo, and likewise stood up.
Drew dared remain no longer. He stole away to the stern and stood fora while, looking over the rail into the black water--no blacker thanthe rage that filled his heart.
He felt half tempted to attack the treacherous Ditty with his barehands and strangle the rascal. But he knew that this was no time for areckless move. There were only himself, the captain, and Tyke to facethis promised mutiny. Probably they could trust Rogers, and some fewof the men forward might be faithful to the after-guard. Theuncertainty of this, however, was appalling.
After a time he went below and rapped lightly on th
e captain's door.The commander of the _Bertha Hamilton_ opened to him instantly. He waspartly undressed.
"Eh? That you, Mr. Drew?"
"Sh! Put out your light, Captain. I'll bring Mr. Grimshaw. I havesomething to tell you both," whispered the young man.
"All right," said the captain, quick to understand.
His light was out before Drew reached Tyke's door. This was unlocked,but the old man was in his berth. Long years at sea had made Tyke alight sleeper. He often said he slept with one eye open.
"That you, Allen?"
"Yes. Hush! We want you in the captain's room--he and I. Come justas you are."
"Aye, aye!" grunted the old man, instantly out of his berth.
The light was turned low in the saloon. Drew did not know whetherDitty had come down or not; but unmistakable nasal sounds from Mr.Roger's room assured him that the second officer was safe.
Tyke, light-footed as a cat, followed him to Captain Hamilton's door.It was ajar, and they went in. The commander of the schooner sat onthe edge of his berth. They could see each other dimly in the faintlight that entered through the transom over the door. Captain Hamiltonhad drawn the blind at the window.
"Well, what's up?" he murmured.
Drew wasted no time, but in whispers repeated the conversation he hadoverheard between Bingo and the mate. When he had finished, Tykeobserved coolly:
"I'd 've bet dollars to doughnuts that that was the way she headed.Now we know. Eh, Cap'n Rufe?"
"Yes," grunted the captain.
"What shall we do?" asked Drew.
"Do? Keep on," Captain Hamilton said firmly. "What d' you say, Tyke?"
"Yes," agreed Grimshaw. "Ditty is playing a waiting game. So will we.An' we have the advantage."
"I don't see that," Drew muttered.
"Why, we know his plans. He don't know ours," explained the old man."We haven't got to worry about them swabs till we've found thedoubloons, anyway."
"If we find 'em," murmured the captain.
"By George! we're bound to find 'em," Tyke said, with confidence."That's what we come down here for."
His enthusiasm seemed unquenched. Drew could not lose heart when theold man was so hopefully determined.
"But Miss Ruth?" Allen suggested timidly, looking at Captain Hamilton.
"Don't bother about her," answered the captain shortly. "She'll not beout of my sight a minute. She must go ashore with us every day. I'llnot trust her aboard alone with these scoundrels."
They talked little more that night; but it was agreed to take all thefirearms and much of the ammunition, disguised in wrappings of somekind, ashore with them in the morning and conceal all with the diggingtools.
"Jest as well to take them all along," Tyke had advised. "I hope wewon't have to use 'em. But if we're going to take Rogers with usto-morrow and leave Ditty in charge here, the rascal might go nosingaround an' find them guns."
"I hate to leave Ditty in possession of the schooner," returned thecaptain, with a worried look.
"So do I," admitted Tyke. "But after all, it isn't only the schoonerhe wants. She's no good to him until we git the treasure aboard. Theonly men it will be wise to take with us to-morrow are Rogers an' aboat's crew that you know you can trust."
Immediately after breakfast the next morning the captain summoned thesecond officer.
"I want you to take me ashore this morning, Mr. Rogers," he said; "andas I have a lot of heavy dunnage that the men will have to carry, I'llwant a husky crew. Take six men; and I want you to take special painsin picking out the best men we have. Men whom we can trust and whohaven't been mixed up with the whispering and the queer business thatyou mentioned."
The second officer's eye flashed, and he nodded understandingly.
"Aye, aye, sir," he replied. "As for the men, sir," he went onreflectively, "there's a dozen I could stake my life on who wouldn't bein any crooked game. Suppose," he counted off on his fingers, "we takeOlsen and Binney and Barker and Dodd and Thompson and Willis. They'reall true blue, and I don't think they're in such a funk over thevolcano as some of the others."
"They'll do," assented the captain. "They're the very men I had inmind. Call some of them down now and have them get this stuff up ondeck. And tell the cook to send dinner grub along, for we may be goneall day."
"Aye, aye, sir," answered Rogers, as he left the cabin.
A little later the party gathered at the rail, and the captain spoke tothe mate.
"Mr. Rogers is going to take us ashore, Mr. Ditty," he said pleasantly."There are no special orders. You can let some of the men have shoreleave if they want it, although after yesterday I don't suppose theywill."
"I suppose not," replied Ditty surlily. "They'll all be glad when weturn our backs on this cursed island."
The captain pretended not to hear. The goods were stowed in the boat,the party and crew took their places, and the craft was pulled smartlyto the beach.
"Now, my lads," said the captain briskly, as he stepped ashore,"there's quite a trip ahead of you and you've got a man's job incarrying this stuff, but I'll see that you don't lose anything by it.Step up smartly now."
The men shouldered their burdens and started off on the trail that hadnow grown familiar to the treasure seekers. The men were able tomaintain a fairly rapid pace, and before long the party arrived at theedge of the clearing within which the treasure was supposed to beburied.
The captain took Rogers aside.
"Take your men back to the beach now, Mr. Rogers," he directed."Remember, I want none of them poking about here. We'll rejoin you ingood season for supper, if not before."
"Aye, aye, sir!" was the cheerful reply.
Rogers turned with his men, and the captain watched their backs fardown the forest path, until they were lost to sight in the greenery ofthe jungle.
"Well now," he remarked, as he turned again to the others, "lively'sthe word. Let's get busy and----. Great Scott! Look at that!" heexclaimed, staring at the top of the whale's hump.
A column of black smoke was rising from the crater.
"Looks like the whale was going to blow again," Tyke said, with afeeble attempt at levity to disguise his apprehension.
The next moment the ears of the party were deafened by a terrificexplosion.